DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Five blocks east of where you're rolling right now, something happened in Jefferson, Texas that the rest of the state had never seen before. Now, Jefferson — and this is worth letting sink in — was at that time the largest inland port and the second largest city in all of Texas.
This wasn't some quiet little backwater. This was a place that expected things, and in 1870 it got something worth expecting: the Jefferson Gas Light Company, chartered that very year for public and domestic service. The first artificial gas plant in Texas.
Let that settle. The whole state, and Jefferson did it first. Now here's where the story gets good, because the how of it is something else entirely.
To make illuminating gas, they used what were called retorts. Iron drums, seven feet long, with small necks on them. Picture that — a squat iron drum, not elegant, not glamorous, just sitting there doing the work.
They loaded those retorts with pine knots and rich pine wood, heated them up, and the gas that came off was forced out into the mains by way of a pressure drum. From there it traveled out into the streets and into the homes of Jefferson. And the street lights — now this is the part I love — hollow posts, spaced three hundred feet apart, each one topped with a ten-candle glass globe.
Not electric. Not torches. Gas.
And every single one of those globes was lit by a man on a ladder. Some fellow with a ladder and a job to do, walking Jefferson's streets at dusk, climbing up, touching flame to gas, moving on to the next one, three hundred feet down the road. One retort — just one — stood on this very site.
The Jefferson Gas Light Company gave Texas its first gaslight system, and Jefferson, the biggest inland port in the state, burned a little brighter for it.
What the marker says
(5 blocks east) Jefferson Gas Light Company, chartered 1870 for public and domestic service, used retorts-- 7 foot iron drums with small necks-- to make illuminating gas. (One retort stood on this site.) Loaded with pine knots and rich pine wood, a retort was heated; its gas was forced into mains by use of a pressure drum. Street lights on hollow posts, 300 feet apart, were 10-candle glass globes, lighted by a man on a ladder. These and gaslights in houses gave Jefferson-- then largest inland port and second largest city in Texas-- the state's first gaslight system. (1966)